Supreme Magus

There was a keyboard below the monitors that allowed its user to switch between the different cameras, but Lith had no idea how to operate it. There was no mouse and his coding skills were nihil for Earth's operating systems, let alone for alien technology.

On the right side of the room there was an empty cylindrical water tank, similar to the one that contained the pseudo-Balor in the Body Enhancement department, but much more complex and refined.

Several cables of different colors went from the nearby wall to and inside the tank. Every single centimeter of it was covered in runes of power that Lith had never seen before, making it both a powerful artifact and the focus of at least twenty different arrays.

Lith noticed that there was a single set of footprints going from the tank to the monitors and moving around the room. Lith followed them with his eyes, noticing that for some reason, the man from the tank had stopped in front of a wall.

Lith used Invigoration, discovering a hidden compartment that had been cloaked against detecting spells, Life Vision included. Triggering it was easy. One of the metal bolts was actually a switch that once pressed made two stone slabs slide, revealing a holographic pad protecting a safe.

"893465." After checking with Invigoration for traps, Lith entered the password. The pad disappeared while the safe opened. Inside there were three books, each one several centimeters thick.

Lith put them inside Soluspedia to examine them. He couldn't read the Odi language, but judging by the pictures, they were the schematics for all Kulah's successful projects.

'Fuck me sideways! The Flesh Golems folder doesn't help me one bit and neither does the Body Swapping book. The pictures are self-explanatory and I can't find any weak point just by looking at them. The Mana Reactor, however, is a different story.

'The part on this floor it's seamless. I doubt Morok could damage it unless he manages to make the mana crystals detonate. The schematics show that its structure reaches the upper floor, where there is a metal gate from which specimens can be thrown inside the Reactor for a reason I don't understand.

'I must inform Morok of this before…' Lith thought when he discovered that his "before" was already expired.

Jiira, the one that Lith referred to as 'mister anatomy model' due to his translucent skin that allowed to see his muscles and organs as if he was some kind of plastic toy, had just walked inside the same room where Phloria was.

Normally Lith would weave his best spells, preparing for the fight, but the enemy's green array made most of them useless, so he preferred to save all of his energies for those abilities that couldn't be turned against him.

'Okay, filthy bastard, just pick one of them who's not Quylla or Phloria, so I'll have all the time I need to inform Morok.' Lith thought.

Unfortunately, after examining all of their prisoners, the Odi had moved Phloria on the bottom of the body rankings and had decided to experiment on her to check if their body-swapping procedure was still effective on humans.

Despite her powerful mana core, with her height and build she was the least charming female specimen according to their standards. Even when they had mistaken her for a man, she ranked pretty low.

With her light bronze skin, fit body, and callous hands she was the embodiment of everything a noble Odi despised. Hard work under the sun was something that only slaves did, not to mention that her height was too far from what they considered perfection.

Jiira closed in on her and released Phloria from the red chains restraining her. Then he used an air spell to move her on what looked like a table. Lith wished with all of his strength for the Odi to go away again, so that he could speak with Morok while Solus freed his friend.

Once again, wishes proved to be a waste of time. Thanks to Life Vision, Lith could see through the walls that part of the energy from the Mana Reactor was flowing inside crystal cables linked to whatever Phloria was lying on.

Lith clenched his fist so hard that his knuckles turned white, yet before taking action he had to wait the moment when the Odi's full focus was on his best friend.

'Wait a minute.' Solus thought. 'If he takes Phloria's body, what need does he have for the other members of the expedition?'

'I'll ask him after I rip his head off.' Lith replied, darting inside the room the moment mana started to flow through Jiira's body.

Lith was in his peak condition, so he infused his body with all the elements and went all out right from the start. He entered the body-swapping room moving so fast to be barely a blur.

Inside, instead of the usual metal, the room was entirely made of stone carved out with earth magic, to allow the world energy to saturate its air. All the remaining members of the expedition were lined up along the wall in order of importance on Lith's right.

Each one of them was restrained by red chains that kept them healthy while preventing them from using magic.

In the middle of the room, there was a stone table where Phloria was. She was conscious but deadly pale. The red chains had healed her wounds, but without being properly fed she was so weak that she didn't have the strength to fight.

Above and below the table, there were bundles of cables that ended into two purple mana crystals, pointing respectively at Phloria's forehead and nape. Jiira had already activated the God's Will array to maximize the procedure's chance of success, so he managed to react fast enough to spread his fingers and release five energy beams.

Lith had already seen that trick and was expecting it. He bent down, passing right under the beams before stepping inside the array against his better judgment.

'I don't know exactly what the green array does, but if I can't attack from a distance, then close combat is my only option.' He thought.

Like Morok had previously told Lith, the Mana Reactor not only did provide the Odi with infinite mana, but also split the world energy into its base components, providing them with the next best thing to fusion magic.

Jiira kept the beams active, sweeping down his hand and cutting through stone and metal as if he was projecting a laser grid while he stepped back. Lith grinned, noticing that the array hadn't moved along with the Odi.

Lith crouched even lower, executing a right leg sweep that almost took his enemy by surprise. Jiira's air fusion allowed him to see Lith's move and react by taking a single step back, putting the enemy right under his line of fire.

Great was Jiira's surprise when the sweep struck at his legs nonetheless, sending him flying while his own energy beams almost damaged the priceless machinery. Lith had partially shapeshifted his body into his hybrid form to succeed.

His hybrid legs were longer than his human form's, something that he had worked hard to prevent the Odi from discovering. He then used the sweep's spin to pivot on his left foot and turn the sweep into a roundhouse kick.

The Orichalcum covered talons of his foot cut deeply into the Odi's chest. Jiira's outrage knew no bounds. The perfect body of a god had just been defiled by a hairless, treacherous monkey.